Delta Urbanism Symposium
More than half of the U.S. population lives in the 673 coastal counties, a number that has continued to increase throughout the past two decades, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In China, the world's most populous nation, 60 percent of the country's 1.2 billion people live in coastal provinces. The same holds true in other countries, as people migrate to coastal and delta regions for economic opportunity, access to transportation and recreation, and the amenity of water.
The migration from inland to coastal and delta regions is occurring at a time of great change and uncertainty. Challenges to fostering safe, healthy, and livable communities come from many directions: concerns about energy security; the threat of climate change, sea level rise, and severe weather events; economic restructuring; aging and inadequate infrastructure; and environmental degradation.
With New Orleans as a laboratory, APA is convening an international symposium as part of the 2010 National Planning Conference to address the challenges facing urban areas located in delta and coastal regions across the world. The symposium will host expert politicians, practitioners, and academics to discuss the growth, development, and management of cities in river deltas, with a spotlight on solutions for balancing various, and often competing, goals. Through plenary sessions, focused discussions, professional exchanges, and mobile workshops, the program will cover four themes:
- Climate change implications
- The built environment
- Economic, social, and environmental considerations
- International collaboration
The symposium is part of APA's larger effort to raise awareness and advance research on delta and coastal development. Additional efforts include publications on delta urbanism, international workshops, the work of APA's National Centers for Planning, and collaboration with knowledge partners such as the NOAA, FEMA, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and the Royal Netherlands Embassy.
The conversations on delta and coastal development will continue at APA's National Planning Conferences in Boston in 2011 and in Los Angeles in 2012.
Resources on Coastal and Delta Regions
http://www.dutchdialogues.com
Read about the outcome of workshops that are the outgrowth of extended interactions between Dutch Urban Designers, landscape architects, city planners, soils/hydrology experts, and, primarily, their Louisiana counterparts.
http://thewaterchannel.tv/index.php?option=com_hwdvideoshare&task=viewvideo&Itemid=53&video_id=180
A documentary about New York, Jakarta, Rotterdam and Alexandria.
http://www.csc.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/
http://www.deltares.com
NOAA: Population Trends Along the Coastal United States: 1980-2008
http://www.nos.noaa.gov/websites/retiredsites/natdia_pdf/3hinrichsen.pdf
